APN Full Form - Access Point Name

by Devender

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What is the full form of APN?

The full form of APN is Access Point Name.

It is basically a gateway between a cellular network and the Internet. It is all the information our phone uses to connect with the carrier's network. It consists of:

Address your phone uses to connect to the network
Ports used to handle MMS messages
Types of data APN is using
Other pieces of information regarding APN

APN also defines the connectivity and service your device is receiving along with all its individual settings. It also defines the security of that device. It finds the right IP address that the device should be identified within the network, determine if a private network is needed, and chooses the correct security settings that should be used.

APN Structure

The structure of APN has two main components that are:

1 A Network Identifier

2 An Operator Identifier

The Network identifier defines the external network to which the Gateway GPRS Support Node is connected. It may also include the service requested by the user. This part of APN is mandatory.

The Operator Identifier defines the specific operator's packet domain network in which the GGSN is located. This part of APN is optional.

APN Types

There are 4 different types of APN. They differ in providing a different level of security and whether it uses dynamic or static IP Addresses. These 4 types of APN are:

Public APN: It allows devices to access the public internet by assigning a dynamic IP address to the device.
Public APN with public static IP: It assigns an IP address to a device from the pool and the device uses that IP address every time it connects to the gateway.
Private APN: It is used for corporate devices providing more security and equipped with different settings than public APN.
Private APN with private static IP: Even with private APN, any device can use dynamic or static public IP Address but with private static IP, communication can be established only by a private network.

APN Protocols

There are three types of APN protocols. These are:

IPv4

It is required to access much of the internet. It allows sending packets (short pieces of information) from one machine to another over a global network using a unique numerical address given to every machine on the network.